With start of school year days away, staff rounds into shape

With the start of the 2013-14 school year only days away, the Crookston School Board this week continued to round out the staff in the three school buildings.

Here's a rundown of who's going to do what:

• Maria Argueta was hired as a paraprofessional who will work in the mornings at Crookston High School, replacing the resigned Rachel Sanders. She'll be paid $11.50 an hour. Argueta is already employed as the district's home to school liaison and she will continue in those duties as well. She'll be paid $12,444 as the liaison.

• The board hired Carol Picard as a bus driver. A previous district employee, she's being hired at the "step 10" level and will be paid $17.27 an hour. She will work four hours per day during the school year. As for the rest of her time, Picard was also hired as an English language aide at Highland School, replacing Lori Melbye, who will now be a full time paraprofessional at CHS. Picard will be paid $11.65 in her aide role.

• Lenore Pietruszewski was hired as a long-term Title I substitute teacher at Washington School to fill in for Debra Larson, who's taking a leave of absence. A Mayville State University alum with a bachelor's degree in elementary education and art, Pietruszewski has 34 years of experience.

• The board was set to hire Ashley Brekken as a paraprofessional at CHS to replace the resigned JoElle Boucher, but Brekken has taken another job so the board will look to hire someone else.

Coming on the heels of a successful first year, the board approved a second year of a maintenance agreement with the Red Lake Falls School District that will have buses and other vehicles in the Red Lake Falls district getting maintained and repaired at the Crookston bus garage by Crookston transportation and maintenance staff.

The rates will remain unchanged, at $50 an hour for general maintenance and $50 an hour for travel if the vehicle can't be delivered to Crookston. The cost of parts and supplies will also be covered by Red Lake Falls. If anything goes beyond what is considered general maintenance, the two school districts will have to agree on what will be done, who's going to do it, and who's going to pay for it.

"It worked out real well last year," said Rick Niemela, the district's transportation and buildings and grounds director.